Dynamics of Faculty Engagement in the Movement for Democracy's Education at Nothern Arizona University: Backgrounds, Practices, and Future Horizons

As scholarship has become increasingly narrow and disconnected from public life, Kettering research has documented an intense sense of malaise in higher education, what Harry Boyte has called a loss of civic agency. Surprisingly, however, faculty at a few campuses have begun to self-organize to integrate civic work into their teaching and research. This study, by Blase Scarnati and Romand Coles, documents such efforts at Northern Arizona University. Rather than making civic engagement a specific project of one or two faculty, what makes this campus special is that civic engagement has taken hold across the university. Building on research by KerryAnn O'Meara, this working paper shows that civic engagement is not only fulfilling to faculty at an individual level but is starting to impact the civic culture of their institutions

Worldwide Workshop on Youth Involvement as a Strategy for Social, Economic and Democratic Development

Summarizes January 2000 discussions on building capacity in the field of youth service. Explores connections with social capital, economic productivity, adolescent development, marginalized youth, civic engagement, and policy. Includes country summaries

'Quadratic Nexus' and the Process of Democratization and State-Building in Albania and Kosovo:A Comparison

<jats:p>This paper examines the interplay between internal and external actors in the process of democratization and state-building in Albania and Kosovo. It does so by using David J. Smith's “quadratic nexus” that links Brubaker's “triadic nexus” – nationalizing states, national minorities and external national homelands – to the institutions of an ascendant and expansive “Euro-Atlantic space”. The main argument of this paper is twofold. First, it argues the nexus remains a useful framework in the study of state-and nation-building provided that it moves beyond the “civic vs. ethnic” dichotomy. Today, many states with a mixture of civic and multi-ethnic elements involve this relational nexus. Second, while comparing Albania and Kosovo, this paper argues that all the four elements of the nexus have a different impact on the process of state- and nation-building and their relationship is more conflictual in Kosovo than in Albania.</jats:p

A Public Voice for Youth: The Audience Problem in Digital Media and Civic Education

Part of the Volume on Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth.Students should have opportunities to create digital media in schools. This is a promising way to enhance their "civic engagement," which comprises political activism, deliberation, problem-solving, and participation in shaping a culture. All these forms of civic engagement require the effective use of a "public voice," which should be taught as part of digital media education. To provide digital media courses that teach civic engagement will mean overcoming several challenges, including a lack of time, funding, and training. An additional problem is especially relevant to the question of public voice. Students must find appropriate audiences for their work in a crowded media environment dominated by commercial products. The chapter concludes with strategies for building audiences, the most difficult but promising of which is to turn adolescents' offline communities -- especially high schools -- into more genuine communities

Popular Conceptions of Nationhood in Old and New European Member States: Partial Support for the Ethnic-Civic Framework

One of the most influential theories in the study of nationalism has been the ethnic-East/civic-West framework developed by Hans Kohn. Using the 2002 Eurobarometer survey on national identity and building on earlier survey studies, this article examines whether the Kohn framework is valid at the level of popular understandings of nationhood. It scrutinizes the framework both conceptually - do people define nationhood in civic or ethnic terms? - and regionally - is the East indeed more ethnic than the West and the West more civic than the East? It will show that identity markers cluster in a political, a cultural and an ethnic dimension. Respondents do not see these dimensions as competing sources of nationhood, however. The article further lends some support for the regional component of the framework. Lastly, it argues that it is the intensity of national identifications rather than their qualitative nature (ethnic-civic) that correlates with xenophobia. © 2006 Taylor & Francis

Philanthropic Case Study: The Civic Engagement Fund for Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian Communities - Bay Area Demonstration Project

In September 2006, the Civic Engagement Fund for Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (Fund) approved its first cycle of seventeen capacity building grants totaling $129,000 to support Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Civic Engagement Fund for AMEMSA Communities is a capacity building initiative designed to support AMEMSA nonprofit organizations through a mix of small grants and the provision of technical assistance. The Fund was developed through a strategic partnership between Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP), an affinity group of the Council of Foundations, and The San Francisco Foundation, a regional community foundation. The collaborative now includes seven additional San Francisco Bay Area philanthropic institutions.This paper explores this unique partnership between an affinity group and a community foundation developed with an explicit goal of developing new strategies to amplify the issues and challenges facing disadvantaged communities and identify innovative funding solutions

Building civic pride

Can we instigate public pride? This question was explored during 2013-14 in the Architecture Undergraduate Studio 3 at The Cass. The booklet discusses how civic pride has been constructed throughout history and how this is still crucial to positively build public space. It illustrates the case studies students studied in order to develop their own proposals for their sites in Hayes, West London. Students tested their proposals with "conversation kits" on the Austin Estate in Hayes, and finalised the year with architectural designs developed from these 1:1 kits

How National Foundations Can Support State-Level Policy and Civic Engagement: A Q&A With Geri Mannion

In this interview, Geri Mannion of Carnegie Corporation of New York shares her thoughts about the biggest challenge facing the country this election year and the role of capacity building in supporting civic engagement. She also offers practical tips for funding state-level efforts to change policy and engage communities

Civic Service Worldwide: Defining a Field, Building a Knowledge Base.

In this article, the authors summarize results of a global assessment of civic service. Searching by country and using information from organizational memberships, publications, and the Internet, 210 civic service programs were identified in 57 countries